Madelyn's Blog

Today I have been in Pau for one week. It is the 4th of July, and also my friend John’s birthday back home. (Happy birthday John! No longer a teenager!) I got home from school, fell asleep, and was woken up by Augusta throwing water balloons at my window from the pool. I went down and swam for a little bit, then we played Uno and I lost several games in quite an embarrassing manner. (I am getting quite tan, by the way. It is sunny ALL the time here.) Right now Gusta is back in the pool, where she lives 90% of the day, singing the French national anthem at the top of her lungs. She’s 11 and crazy and very much entertaining. Her dad asked me if I have a little sister at home, and if not, if I want to take her back to the US with me in my suitcase. I think I’ll leave her here in her natural environment. The WiFi here is really bad right now, I keep having to unplug the router now instead of just pushing the reset button. The problem is that the phone, tv, and internet all run through the same box, so when I reset it it takes about 5 minutes for all of them to start working again and I hate being a pain and cutting off everyone’s communication every time the internet goes out. Hopefully Victor comes home from camping soon and works his magic and fixes the internet. I keep hearing sirens, which leads me to believe that maybe the American crowd is causing a stir today in honor of our country’s independence. I don’t know what we’re having for dinner ce soir, but it smells absolutely delicious so I’m going to go investigate.

Happy  4th of July!

Saw the famous Chateau de Pau today! It’s pretty quaint, as castles go, which was nice because it made for a shorter tour. I love a good castle, but once you’ve seen 5 or 6 you’ve seen them all. It was beautiful today, 80 degrees and sunny. The buses don’t run on Sunday (except for one or two of the lines) so I had a 45 minute walk to school to meet with the group and another 45 minute walk to get to the castle. It was nice to be outside for that long! We ate pizza at a restaurant next to the castle, then found the most delicious raspberry gelato on the way home. When I got home I tried out my family’s new pool, which was wonderful in the heat and sun. I took a 3 hour nap after…I think the sun and walking took a lot out of me today! It’s a good thing though, because now I can stay up later tonight and skype with mon petit ami. The 6-hour time difference is a little challenging at times. Tomorrow is the 4th of July…so I’m thinking the USAC group might have a picnic under the one American flag we found downtown. We figure the French won’t mind since they helped us with the whole revolution thing, and then had their own.

A demain!

Bonjour tout le monde!

We had quite the outing last night, experiencing some real French night life at a quaint little French Irish establishment called The Galway. Night here isn’t as scary as we imagined, and no one got lost or kidnapped or had their organs sold on the black market by Romanian gypsies. (Like Kelsey was worried about.) Today I had lunch with my family and sat outside by the new blow up pool (which I will be sure to take advantage of) before heading downtown to shop Les Soldes with Carolyn. Les Soldes are huge sales that happen every July in all of the French clothing stores. We found some great deals, had a baguette sandwich, and bought groceries to make pasta Alfredo for dinner. My family is gone to Bordeaux for the night so I’m going to stay in and write out the first 10 or so post cards. I might even try to work the TV…which will be an adventure, I’m sure, since I can hardly figure out most American ones. Tomorrow the other USAC students and I are planning to visit the chateau, and the weather is supposed to be beautiful again!

Goodbye from France!

Well, it’s been a whirlwind adventure the past 2 days. I’ll start at the beginning. This is a long one.

Yesterday morning was my orientation at the University of Pau. There are about 25 of us from USAC, which is the US program, and about 20 others, some from the US and some from other countries. The first thing we did was take a placement test, written and oral, to determine what level French classes we should be in. I ended up in the third year class, which is what I was signed up for anyway. After that, Ryan, who helps run the USAC program, took us to lunch in the cafeteria, which was actually delicious. All of the food appears to be homemade and fresh. You get an appetizer (usually a small salad), a desert (fruit or yogurt), an entree with vegetables, and bread for 3 euros, which is about $4.50. After lunch we had a few sessions on what there is to do in Pau, what you should expect from your home stay/residence hall, etc. Then the two student USAC workers (Pauline and Anne Gaille) took us on a walking tour of Pau, where I finally got to see the castle that has been my desktop background for the past few weeks! We stopped at a chocolate shop and had macaroons and little French chocolates, which, by the way, don’t make you fat like Belgian chocolates do (so we were told). After stopping at the bus station, we returned to the university only to find the USAC office locked. This wouldn’t be a problem except for that I left my backpack there to avoid carrying it on the tour. Also, I don’t have a French cell phone yet and my beloved American cell phone doesn’t work here, so there was no calling my French mother to come save me. Anyway, there I was, laptop-less with a useless smartphone and a brand new bus pass. I knew I had to take 2 buses to get home, and I had the booklet with the route and times for one, so I decided to give it a try. I managed to get on the right bus and off at the right stop, Pole Bosquet. Unbeknownst to me, Pole Bosquet is a group of about 6 stops, all for different buses, in the center of Pau. Also, some of the stops are hidden around corners and there are no maps. Thank goodness for the kind group of French women willing to help a lost American student, or I would probably still be wandering around Pole Bosquet. After getting on and off the second bus, and walking around my neighborhood for 20 minutes or so, lost, muttering to myself in French, I found my house. Voila. We ate dinner, watched the French version of The Amazing Race (one of the contestants is a family friend), and I went to bed. During all of this I couldn’t get the WiFi to work for more than 2 or 3 minutes at a time, which was a little annoying. I wanted to tell everyone about my adventure but it was a little too complicated to try to explain to my host family in French.

I got up this morning eager to give the bus another go, but realized as soon as I left my house I had no idea how to get back to the bus stop. I finally found it, but I was late. By late I mean on time, but apparently French buses are notoriously early. Who knew. I got to school a few minutes late, but not as late as most of the other mid westerners whose small towns don’t have bus systems. Since the program is condensed into 4 weeks, the classes are very long. I have intensive French from 9:30-12:30 or 1 every day, and Haitian history through literature and film from 1:30-3:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, I am here to learn French, and that is exactly what I’m sure to do with 15 hours of French class a week, along with being immersed in it at home. The bus ride home was less of an adventure, now that I have detailed English directions noted in my phone. I had myself a nice little nap after school, and Jean-Baptiste and his girlfriend made us dinner tonight. After dinner we watched a French expose on pre-packaged food being used in gourmet French restaurants (quel horreur!) .

The WiFi is working quite splendidly right now, and much to Alex’s relief I am not lost on the bus system of Pau. All is well. Tomorrow I only have 3 hours of class, and a few errands to run afterwards. I am officially on the lookout for postcards to send home, as I have a list of about 30 addresses and I figure I should get an early start on sending them out.

Bonne nuit tout le monde!

After travelling for 35 hours, I finally made it to Pau! It took two cars, 3 planes, a bus, and a train to get me here, but I’m in one piece and have all of the bags I started with. Success. My family met me at the airport, and pretty much as soon as I dropped my bags off in my room we went to watch the two youngest kids in an end of the year play. I didn’t understand much, except something about ancient Rome and people getting stabbed. A lot. Several dozen times, actually. It was very violent for being put on by kids too young to drive. After the play we came back to the house and had a very late European dinner. Anyway, here is the run-down on my new French family:

Cecile: Mother to 5 loud kids, all of whom adore her. Very nice. Makes the best quiche I’ve ever tasted.

Jean-Bernard: Father. Owns a manufacturing company that makes parts for airplanes. Speaks English, likes to make fun of fat American animals. Has taken me under his wing and insists that I sit in the special chair next to him at dinner.

Jean-Baptiste: Oldest brother. Works with his dad for the summer, has a very pretty girlfriend.

Jeanne-Marie: Oldest sister. Haven’t met her yet, as she’s off working somewhere for the summer.

Raphaelle: Sister, my age. Very nice, and outgoing. I have a feeling she’s going to be a big help in learning what French culture is really like.

Victor: Younger brother. Helped me fix the WiFi today so I can blog. Thank you Victor!

Augusta: Little sister. Was hilarious to watch in the play tonight, and even more hilarious at home. She sings and dances and raps and I think we’re going to get along very well.

Tomorrow I have orientation at the university at 9am. It’s past midnight here, so bonne nuit!

First flight down, two to go.

I’m in Chicago, hunkered down near the window of my gate for the next 7 hours until my flight to Paris. There are only 3 outlets at this gate, which has over 200 seats. I have stealthily secured one and don’t plan on giving it up. I figured out how to tether my laptop to my phone, so I can use its internet and avoid paying $6.95/day for WiFi in the airport. Also very sneaky. In other news, the woman sitting across from me (who is on the way to Florida but the airline cancelled her flight, how dare they) got 3 pages into her mystery novel and loudly proclaimed that she will  not finish the book, because if the protagonist uses the “most direct route” feature on his GPS 3 pages in he’s obviously an idiot, and she doesn’t want to read a book with an idiot hero. Touche, loud Floridian woman, touche. My plans for the next 7 hours include: sleeping, checking the weather, praying that said weather does not bring large hail (as predicted) and delay my flight to Paris, eating ridiculously overpriced and over-processed airport food, looking up interesting words in my French-English dictionary, and more sleeping.

A bientot

p.s. Mom, I have seen several sticker-worthy people in the airport today, including a woman in full length denim bib overalls and several instances of sandals with long socks.

Errr 3.

As of today:

• My class is done.
• I am 97% packed.
• I had my last day at work.
• My fridge is empty.

Almost time to go to France! My suitcase is 44.3lbs right now..5.7lbs under the limit. I think I’m going to forego one pair of shoes and maybe a bottle of hair product to lighten the load a bit and account for souvenirs on the trip back. Time for some late night pizza, and then off to bed. Finishing a few last things tomorrow then headed to Skandia on Sunday!

Au revoir

Scratch that. 4 days. It seems I never sit down at the computer until after midnight. Here’s my address while in France, in case any of you want to send me anything in the next 5 weeks.

Madelyn Espinosa

USAC France

Bureau 125 Faculté des Lettres

Université de Pau

64000 Pau, FRANCE

Back to preparations…goodnight!

Umm…make that 5 days…it’s 1am again. So, Alex made me this blog so I can keep everyone updated on my daily activities and misadventures while I’m in France for July. Thank goodness for a boyfriend with computer skills…my plan was to use one of those generic blogging sites, but I never managed to open an account and he took matters into his own hands. Voila, blog.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m studying abroad for 5 weeks to help with my minor in international French. I’ve taken French since 8th grade, and I hope to come back from this trip nearly fluent. I’m staying with a family in Pau…they have 5 kids and a dog, and my new mother’s name is Cecile. That’s about all I know right now. I will have class 5 days a week, and it’s said to be pretty intensive as far as the language portion goes. In addition I’ll have a class on the history of Haitian film and hopefully a 1-credit art class.

The to-do list of things to do pre-France is growing…and my time in the US is dwindling. In the next few days I have to study for and take a final exam for my summer class at MTU, somehow pack 5 weeks worth of worldly possessions into one suitcase, and tie up a few dozen other loose ends here in Houghton. I don’t know if I’m more nervous about going to France or the next week before I go to France.

Anyway…I’m off to bed and hoping for an early start tomorrow.

Bonne nuit!

Welcome to my wonderful girlfriend’s sweet new blog to keep in touch with friends and family. Enjoy 🙂

-Alex